


Stable Core

by lostintheclouds321



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Bisexual Peter Parker, Child Abuse, Coming Out, Dramatic Peter Parker, F-Slur is dropped once, Gay Harley Keener, Happy Ending, Harley Keener has an internships at SI, Harley Keener lives in Queens, Homophobia, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Internalized Homophobia, It didn't happen because I hated it, Kidnapping, Leave a comment and I'll love you forever, M/M, Miscommunication, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Online School, Panic Attack, Peter Parker Has Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Peter Parker lives in Tennessee, Precious Peter Parker, Self-Acceptance, Skip Wescott - Freeform, Stabbing, Texting, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Is Soft, Tony Stark broke into Peter's garage, also because, and, but!, parkner, reverse au, therefore:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22541401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostintheclouds321/pseuds/lostintheclouds321
Summary: Living in such a small town, Peter only had two big fears: 1) he would never make it out of Rose Hill and 2) his aunt would figure out he liked boys just as much as he liked girls.Harley loved the city, there was always something going on. But maybe he was biased, he’d been raised there after all.OR:A reverse AU in which Peter was raised in Tennessee and Harley in Queens, and how they find each other regardless and learn to accept themselves for all that they are (also iron dad).
Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 37
Kudos: 407





	1. Peter Parker Anew

**Author's Note:**

> I see this AU a lot in Miraculous Ladybug so I thought it'd apply well here. I'm really proud of hiw this came out and I hope y'all like it.
> 
> //tw this chapter: mentions of sexual abuse (skip wescott), homophobia, getting kicked out, getting beat up by a large group of people, panic attacks, stabbing?, and kidnapping

Peter had a hard time making new friends. He was interested in science, and programming, and building robots, but no one else was. If not for the garage filled with his parent’s old projects, he wouldn’t have been able to learn all that he did. He probably would’ve died of boredom without all the tech and science he got to use.

His Aunt May was always concerned that Peter was lonely to which Peter argued that having more time to himself was _actually_ a good thing because it gave him time to explore all of his interests. Neither of them believed what he was saying.

The thing was, Rose Hill just wasn’t the kind of place where people explored STEM areas. The townsfolk either became teachers, farmers, or shop people to keep the cycle of Rose Hill alive. There were never any new people and the most kindred spirit Peter had found was a mechanic, Paul, who showed him around the cars he worked on and taught him to be a mechanic himself.

Living in such a small town, Peter only had two big fears: 1) he would never be able to leave Rose Hill and 2) his aunt would figure out he liked boys just as much as he liked girls. The only other person Peter had met that liked their same gender was Skip Wescott: his tutor turned tormentor.

He never told anyone what the older boy had done to him, but he did study enough on his own so that his Aunt didn’t think he needed the help in his English class anymore and stopped hiring Skip.

Peter still sees the teen around town. He’s just become another shop clerk like the rest of the town did (if Peter didn’t go shock still upon seeing him, he ran away as fast as he could).

His list of fears shrunk to just one when a certain billionaire broke into his garage with Iron Man. It was then that he knew, he’d do anything to get out of his town. He’d helped Mr. Stark recover and the man showed him the suit. They’d used his parents’ leftover supplies to put it back together in working order.

Mr. Stark left far too early for Peter’s liking and the Mandarin was defeated.

But before Pete could start thinking that Mr. Stark had forgotten him, he came back to his house one day to find his entire garage renovated with all kinds of new equipment. In the center of it all was a computer (built by the billionaire himself) that held what Mr. Stark had labeled ‘starter code 4 AI.’ That summer, he hardly left the garage.

The next school year was a bit of a disaster. Mr. Stark had sent an anonymous donation to his school with the note to take Peter’s class to “some tech headquarters in New York,” trying to hint at SI probably. Clearly, that was too vague and the trip ended up going to Oscorp of all places. Peter didn’t even get to enjoy the entire trip because a spider bite caused him to get sick for two whole days.

Even worse, when he _did_ get better and was able to go out with his class, he got separated from them. He was left behind in Central Park for an hour before anyone realized he was missing. Luckily, there was a sweet boy able to help him through his panic attack.

He didn’t get the boy’s name but those bright blue eyes and dirty blonde curls gave him a big realization: girls weren’t the only pretty ones.

The rest of the trip wasn’t spent looking at all the attractions, but discovering his new powers. He was sticky, and strong, and he didn’t need his glasses anymore!

On top of all that, he had a spooky sixth sense that helped him avoid the cruel teasing of some of the other boys.

The second he got home, he started his research until he found a descriptor that matched with him: Bisexual. He didn’t dare say it out loud, he’d heard his Aunt and Uncle complain over and over about how the ‘liberals’ were making America worse with all their ‘ _gay crap._ ’ He knew that they wouldn’t be happy to learn about his new discovery.

So he kept it to himself. And he did a pretty good job until freshman year of high school. There was a new boy in town from California; he had bright blonde hair and green eyes and a cute accent (at least to Peter’s ears).

He was also Peter’s first friend since, well, ever. Peter invited him over to his high tech garage all the time and May seemed relieved that he finally had a friend. That is, until she found them kissing on the workbench.

Peter hardly had a chance to gather everything important to him before he was shoved unceremoniously outside of the house he’d known all his life and away from the only family he had left. Not even his spider-powers could save him now.

He looked down at his small duffle bag of stuff and wondered what his next steps would be. He had about two thousand dollars cash from his odd jobs around town but where would that get him?

Hardly any busses passed through Rose Hill, and where would he even go? He simply wandered around Rose Hill for an hour, thinking about his next step. He felt like everyone’s eyes were on him, but how did the news spread that quickly? Did the whole town know?

His answer came in the form of a few older teens from his school cornering him behind the convenience store and trying to ‘beat the gay’ out of him. And despite his super strength Peter couldn’t push them away. Maybe he deserved this. It was his fault for kissing that other boy.

But then he thought about how the news had shown New York City’s pride parade. Of course, the channel his family was watching used the footage to criticize it, but it lit a spark of hope inside Peter’s chest.

As he clutched his stomach in agony, he couldn’t help but think that he wanted to be somewhere like that one day. Somewhere it wouldn’t be weird for him to like boys.

He wanted to live in New York. He thought of his duffle bag, luckily the teens hadn’t even touched it. He grabbed it with weak arms even when he felt like he needed to throw up. He grabbed his phone which successfully held his own AI: Karen.

“Karen,” he called weakly, “How do I get to New York?” Clearly, he wasn’t thinking straight as he didn’t try at all to locate a hospital despite the blood leaking out of his mouth.

After a few minutes of processing, her voice rang out, “Calling Tony Stark, right now.”

“Wait, fuck, no-“

The call connected.

“Pete? What’s up?” the mechanic’s voice rang out loud and clear.

Peter let out a wet cough, “Uh, you know, just-“ but before he could keep speaking his one cough turned into a series of coughs.

“Shit, kid, are you okay?” And Peter hated that he could hear the worry in his voice. Karen shouldn’t have called him, Mr. Stark was probably really busy and Peter was just clouding up his schedule for no reason.

Karen decided now would be a good time to intervene in the conversation, “Tony Stark, I am Karen, Peter’s AI. Peter currently needs medical attention and has spoken of desires to go to New York, I called you, as you have the means to deal with all of these intricacies.”

“You never told me you finished the AI!” Tony exclaimed before Karen’s words fully sunk in, “Wait, medical attention? What’s wrong? What about your Aunt and Uncle?”

“Uhh, I got kicked out,” Peter said all too quickly. He wasn’t even sure if Tony would be able to understand him.

“Kicked out? What for? Ignore that, I’m heading over now,” Tony said without hesitation, “Karen, send me his exact location please.”

“Affirmative,” responded his traitorous AI.

With that, the call was ended and Peter laid in peace with his aching body.


	2. Peter Parker Connecting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wasn't sure if i should go with just peter pov and then just harley pov or intersplice the two of them but I haven't edited harley's part so it's peter, all in for the next few chapeters.

Soon enough, Tony was there with his futuristic plane in his designer suit. Looking so out of place in the rural town. On the way back to Tony’s private med-bay, Tony assured him that he had no problem with Peter liking guys and Peter finally felt at ease.

Surprisingly, the billionaire went so far as to get guardianship over Peter and the teen started Sophomore year at an online school that specified in science and maths. Even cooler than living with Tony Stark, was that the Avengers lived right below. They really became like

It was apparently linked with some place called Midtown High, but Peter had had enough of high schoolers for the rest of his life. Plus, he got more time to work in the lab with Tony this way.

Tony insisted he get training lessons in how to defend himself and hold his own in a fight; to the billionaire that meant direct lessons from Natasha Romanov: superspy.

And when _she_ found out about his super-strength, she brought Captain Frickin America into the equation. She helped him come up with the idea of Spider-Man and Tony helped him put the final touches on the suit.

But, as unfamiliar with the city as he was, there was nothing Peter could really do in the general vicinity. However, that all changed when he met Harls_004 through his online classes. Apparently, he wanted to take a class that wasn’t offered at Midtown so they let him take it online.

Their messages for the project they were assigned to work on together turned into phone calls which turned into facetimes until they weren’t even talking about the project anymore. Peter was glad to have a friend that he was positive wouldn’t result with him getting kicked out of his house.

Harley was smart, he had an internship (where, he wouldn’t say), grew up in New York City, and had a total of two friends (one and a half on bad days) whom he spoke of fondly.

It was on one of those facetimes that Peter’s Spider-Man fantasy came out. Nat had started talking about it in the background and Harley wasted no time confronting him about it.

After that, Harley suggested that his fantasy become something more. When Peter reasoned his doubts, Harley offered to help, “I know this city like the back of my hand, I can help you around it no problem!”

So, with the approval of Tony (and Nat, who assured Tony that Peter could handle himself on the field), he was out in the streets as Spider-Man within the week.

That first week was pretty finicky. Harley and Peter got confused with their differing perspectives and understandings, but they quickly fell into a routine and lingo.

Peter never felt as free as did when he was swinging around the city. And even though he was relying on Harley (who he’d still never met in real life) he felt like he could do anything.

Speaking of Harley, Peter was having a _hard_ time with his voice constantly in his ear. He could hear every laugh, breath, gasp, and it was really getting to him. Peter’s thoughts were quickly going to a place he didn’t want them. His last ‘romantic encounter’ hadn’t exactly turned out the best so he was trying his best to keep his thoughts buried in the _deep_ recesses of his brain.

The more Spider-Man went out, the less he needed directions from Harley and the more Tony worried about him. It wasn’t that Peter was falling behind on his homework, but Tony seemed to have the same concern that May once did: that he didn’t have enough friends.

Peter tried to explain that his online friend was more than enough but Tony was adamant that he meet new people.

That’s when the internship program started up. Of course, Tony already had a personal intern and hundreds of college interns in the lower levels, but this idea was all about the high schoolers.

In a roundabout way to get Peter friends, Tony had started a whole new program for him. Or, well, he started a whole new program for Peter to _run_. Like that wasn’t terrifying enough, he, along with a college level intern, was in charge of making sure none of them hurt themselves or the expensive equipment.

The program went okay. Probably not as Tony planned though because Peter didn’t make any friends. He was too worried about the high schoolers getting hurt and being liable and getting kicked out and- yeah. A lot of his fears tended to end with him getting kicked out.

Luckily, Tony listened to him when Peter told him that the program was causing him unnecessary stress and cut down on the hours and rotated the students.

“Would you want to work with me and my intern instead? We’ve been working on this old Mustang-“

Peter just sighed, “I just don’t get cars the same way you two do,” which was only kind of the truth. He could find his way around a car effortlessly from his work with Paul, but he didn’t have the same passion that they did. On top of that, he didn’t want to interrupt what the two of them had.

Tony was constantly gushing about his intern and it made Peter happy to hear but also a little bit disheartened. He didn’t want to take Tony’s time away from the mechanics that he so very much loved because every time they worked in the lab it was always on something _Peter_ was interested in (and products for Stark Industries of course, but it wasn’t the same).

The next week however went much better. He met a high schooler who was practically a genius when it came to coding. His name was Ned Leeds and he went to Midtown High. Peter thought about asking him if he knew Harley Keener but thought it might’ve been a bit of a stretch. Harley always seemed like the lone wolf type.

Ned even went as far to invite Peter over to work on a Lego Death Star! Peter didn’t have much experience with Legos as his family’s budget had been pretty tight but wow was he excited to build some with Ned.

Tony was ecstatic as well. He even got Happy to drive him when Peter could have just as easily swung over.

Ned’s house was fun. Peter had never had a friend (other than Harley of course) who shared all the same interests as him but also knew more. They ended up working on a program together and Peter had never laughed so hard in his life.

The only time their conversation stalled was when Ned asked what should’ve been a relatively harmless question, “So, how’d you get to teach the internship at SI?”

“It’s sort of a long story, I don’t know if you want to hear it,” Peter admitted, trying his best to get out of the question

Ned just shrugged, more focused on placing Legos than how serious Peter’s voice had gotten, “Then make it a short one.”

Peter bit his lower lip and thought about what he could say, should he start with Tony Stark breaking into his garage? Getting beat up behind the convenience store? Maybe he should just fast forward to the part where Tony was worried he didn’t have enough friends.

In the end, he just went with, “My family found out I was bi and they kicked me out, I live with Tony now.”

His friend almost dropped one of the Legos he was holding in shock at Peter’s words, “Whoa, that’s a lot. You’re doing okay now, right?”

Peter thought about Spider-Man, the family he created with the Avengers, Tony, and Harley, “Yeah, I’m doing better than ever,” he said with a smile that he wished wasn’t as strained as it was.

As much as he loved his current life, he still loved and missed his Aunt and Uncle with all his heart. He couldn’t stop thinking about the good memories they’d shared.

But while he was hanging out with Ned, he could do his best to push those thoughts back to where his feelings for Harley resided.


	3. Peter Parker Overwhelmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> descriptions of panic attack be warned  
> peter parker just has a rough time :(

Honestly, Peter had expected it to happen a lot sooner considering how much he was around high school students. 

Three students came up to him all at once. They’d had good intentions and a good project they wanted to show off, but it suddenly too much for Peter and he was taken back to Rose Hill when he got beat up by the seniors at his school.

Maybe using too much strength, Peter pushed through them and bolted out the door, ignoring Ned’s call for him.

He took the elevator straight to the top where Tony usually resided, “FRIDAY? Where is Tony right now?” he asked, his voice shaking and his legs weak.

“You seem to be in distress, I will send him up this second,” she responded instantly.

Peter stumbled over to the living room area and collapsed on the ground, his back against the rear of the couch. His breathing was heavy and everything coming in was either too much or too little.

Seconds after he fell on his butt, Tony came running over to him, “Peter, Peter, kid, are you okay?” he asked but Peter didn’t feel like he was there.

His skin was itching like it was littered in bruises and his ears were ringing. He let out a light moan and soon he was being cradled in the engineer’s arms.

Tony smelt like grease and sweat but Peter relaxed into his grip anyway.

Peter felt the reverberations of Tony’s chest, he was saying something but the teen couldn’t hear him. He took Tony’s hand in his own to ground himself and the words started coming back to him. Tony was telling him a story.

He tried to focus all his attention on the story, what if it was important?

Then he realized, the story was about him and Tony. Their first meeting in that garage. Tony was talking about Peter like he was incredible and the more he listened, the more Peter started to believe it.

His crying subsided and his breathing slowed down, “I- I’m,” he tried to choke out a full sentence but was having a hard time speaking.

Tony shushed him and ran his fingers through Peter’s hair, “You don’t have to talk right now, Peter. You’re going to be okay.”

And if the two of them fell asleep like that, no one had to be the wiser.

After Peter’s episode, Tony ended up cutting back even more on the programs Peter had to moderate and he started up therapy. The sessions were hard, but his therapist was nice. They talked about all kinds of things going on in his life. His thoughts about his family, the deceased and the living, the day he got kicked out, ‘why didn’t you want to call Tony?’, and the more mundane things like hanging out with Ned or talking to Harley, ‘what would happen if you didn’t push your feelings for Harley away?’

Sometimes Peter didn’t want to answer or talk at all, but other times he would burst open with all his thoughts and feelings, sometimes even talking about a question that had been asked in a previous session.  
He didn’t end up going on any meds, what with his metabolism and everything, but he felt himself feeling better about himself and his current situation.

He also allowed himself to get closer to Harley instead of keeping his self-imposed distance. The first time they met was sweet yet short. Peter was on patrol and happened to be swinging near Harley’s apartment building.

They shared their first hug through the window and talked for a few minutes before Peter had to go deal with a mugging. After that, the visits started increasing and getting longer. Peter would set out on patrol earlier just so he could spend more time with the other teen.

They’d talk about their respective schools, things they’d been building, or they’d just sit in silence scrolling through the latest memes and sending them over text instead of showing each other like normal people probably did.

That was how Harley’s younger sister found them, she burst in the room screaming, “You two are having sex!”

And despite the blush on his face, Peter set down his phone and looked over at Harley, “We are? Babe, I would’ve set down my phone earlier had you told me,” he joked before realizing that he was in half of the spider suit.

His mask was thrown askew on the desk and he was wrapped up in one of Harley’s sweatshirts.

Abby stared at the pair of them for a solid ten more seconds of silence before, “You’re banging Spider-Man?” she asked incredulously.

Now, it was Harley’s turn to blush, “Abby, where did you get that idea? And come in and close the door.”

“Don’t think I don’t hear him coming through the window every night!” she said pouting and crossing her arms.

Harley groaned and put his head in his hands, “How does my little sister know these things? Look, Peter is just my friend, I promise.” 

And, wow, did that hurt.

“I knew you were too boring to be dating a superhero!” she said triumphantly, sticking her tongue out.

Despite his hurting heart, Peter started laughing at Harley’s sister’s antics. Being an only child with no friends, he’d never experienced this kind of interaction, it was nice.

“Abby, you know who I work for, stop embarrassing me!”

Peter and Abby laughed in tandem before a scream rang out. Peter grabbed his mask and jumped out the window before swinging to the noise. It wasn’t until he got back to the tower that he realized he’d stolen Harley’s sweater.

In the end, Harley didn’t mind so Peter kept it for nights when he was feeling particularly out of sorts.

Peter was the first to find out about their connection, and a little more.

It was Tony’s allotted time with his personal intern, and usually Peter tried to stay out of their way, but he really needed to ask Tony about some coding he found in his suit and changes he wanted to make to it.

But when he walked into the lab, who else did he see but Harley Keener. He had one hand on his face and his cheeks were bright red, “Tony, I just, I don’t know what to do. I keep getting mixed vibes and I want to shoot my shot, but then I see him and my brain just kinda malfunctions.”

“What’s his name again?” Tony asked, nonchalantly.

“You’ve been asking for weeks, what makes you think I’m gonna tell you now? You’re just going to embarrass me.”

Tony huffed in that impatient way of his and Peter fled the room, not wanting to hear the rest of the conversation. He ended up curled in his bed, Harley’s sweatshirt thrown all the way across his room, crying softly into his pillows.

He felt dramatic, sure, but it was warranted. Harley liked someone. Someone who probably wasn’t Peter. Peter who had no friends, Peter who was only interesting because of Spider-Man, Peter who couldn’t be loved by his own family.

He didn’t know how long he laid there crying out his woes, but by the time he stopped it was time for dinner. He splashed cold water on his face, forced himself to smile, and successfully emerged from his room.

He was going to have to hang out with Ned soon. Ned always gave him the best hugs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please tell me yall recognize that one meme i put in there :)  
> and if you left a comment it would make me really happy :)  
> also, idk why but i think i have a thing for peter distancing himself from harley only to go falling back to him  
> Thanks for reading,  
> Jesi~


	4. Peter Parker Realizing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some new facts come to light

The next few weeks were hard. Peter ended up hanging out with Ned more, yet tried to remain positive around Harley. He didn’t tell Ned about his crush, but his friend had probably pieced together what had happened. If Harley noticed his offset behavior, he didn’t say anything about it.

When he was with Ned, he did everything he could to take his mind off the other teen. They tried watching Star Trek but didn’t like it (how could Harley prefer it over Star Wars?), they went to Coney Island and had a great time, and Peter even gave Ned a tour of the tower, at least, the upper parts. He _tried_ introducing him to a few of the Avengers but after the fainting incident with Steve, Peter didn’t dare try again.

He was honestly scared of what would happen if he introduced Ned to his guardian.

Peter even became friends with another one of Ned’s friends: MJ. She was sort of standoffish and aloof but Peter liked her. Both of them felt familiar, like he’d met them before, or read about them in a story. Apparently, they had a third friend, but he was always busy with his internship.

MJ and him got close enough that she even invited him to a protest. He really wanted to go, but declined because he didn’t want to freak out at the crowds. MJ didn’t judge him for it at all which was nice of her.

Peter stayed like that until he stumbled upon Tony and Harley in conversation yet again, but this time in the kitchen.

“Still having boy troubles, Harls?” Tony asked, and Peter could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

“How could you tell?” Harley asked, seeming a bit dejected.

Tony just laughed, “As if it’s not written all over your face, I see that look on my son all the time.” Peter blushed bright red before there was a choking noise. He popped out his head just a little to see Tony patting Harley on the back,

“I’m sorry, even the _son of Tony Stark_ is having boy troubles? Man, that’s rough.”

“Rough indeed, especially when he won’t talk to me about them,” the mechanic said, pouting a little bit. Peter quickly ducked his head back around the corner and shoved his face in his hands. He would’ve groaned if it wouldn’t blow his cover. He might’ve talked to Tony about it if his boy troubles _weren’t also Tony’s private intern_ , “What’s happening now, anyway?”

“I think I fucked up, I don’t know what I did though! All of a sudden, he just started acting weird around me. I’m so worried that he found out about my crush and thinks it’s gross and-“

His rambling was stopped suddenly by Tony, “Calm down, kid. I can think of a million other things going on. Like, maybe -now, I know this could be a wild idea- he likes you back?” Tony tried offering.

There was a pause in the conversation, as if Tony’s mere suggestion had broke Harley, before, “Why would _Spider-Man_ like _me?_ ”

Before Tony could say anything to that, Peter was running to his room, his hand clutching at his chest, right over where his heart was. Could anyone else hear it? Because it was louder than ever.

Harley liked Spider-Man, that meant Harley liked _Peter_.

Barely containing a shout of joy, Peter flopped over on his bed. What was he going to do now?

Peter was waiting patiently on the top of the roof. He had a whole array of snacks and candles and roses laid out on a nice blanket he’d made in his spare time. If he was doing this, he was doing this right.

He’d thought about wearing his Spidey suit but settled for a light blue dress shirt and some nice jeans. He’d thought about wearing the also formal suit Tony had bought for him but decided against it.

Harley should be coming back from his internship any time now. And when he does, Peter left a note in his room telling him where to find Peter.

After forty five minutes of waiting on the rooftop, Peter was starting to get nervous. And cold. He’d thrown on a hoodie pretty quickly into his waiting period but it wasn’t enough.

Thoughts ran through his head, maybe Harley hadn’t gotten his note? Could the internship hours have run a bit longer? What if Harley _had_ gotten the note but didn’t think Peter was important enough to-

He quickly cut off those thoughts, there were a few ways to verify any of his claims. First, he put on his web shooters and propelled himself down to Harley’s window. The lights were off and the note was still placed on his desk.

It was eerily quiet in the apartment so maybe the family had gone out to dinner? Peter’s stomach was getting queasy as he grew more and more unsure of Harley’s location.

He _could_ try calling Harley but he didn’t want to seem _too_ desperate so he called Tony first, “Pete? What is it?”

“Ummm, just was wondering what you were up to right now?” Peter asked, trying to hide the quake in his voice.

“I’ve just been working on some stuff by myself, my intern left an hour ago so you’re free to join me in the lab if you want,” the mechanic offered.

“An hour ago?” Peter almost yelled before recomposing himself, “I mean, I see. I think I’m gonna do some more Spider-Manning before coming home, kay?”

“Whatever _suits_ you, Pete,” he said, finishing the call with a (probably) intentional pun.

Peter groaned into his phone even though his guardian had already hung up. He checked all his socials for news of Harley before finally giving in and calling his phone.

Right when Peter thought the tone was going to cut out, Harley picked up.

“Harls! Finally, I was getting worried. Are you okay?” he cried out.

But when he’d been expecting a joking, ‘Aw you missed me that much?’ or something along those lines, he instead got a gruff, “Who the fuck are you?”

That was most definitely _not_ Harley, “Um, I’m Harley’s friend, who are you?”

“Ah a friend, you say? Well how about, you go find your ‘friend’s’ dad and tell him to pay the fuck up or I’ll kill his entire family!” he said, yelling now. In the background, Peter could hear Abby crying, “We’re the Martucci’s, he’ll know where to find us.”

The Martucci’s, of course it was them. They’d been a pain in Peter’s behind for a while. They’d been trying to get some of their drugs into Queens and so Peter had chased them right out. For a Mob, they were all really smart. They effortlessly changed their drugs and the potencies so figured out that they could get anyone addicted.

Clearly, they were a bunch of badass chemists, it was a shame they’d gone towards crime instead of being really good chemist vigilantes or something. Now _that_ was a galaxy brain idea.

Peter didn’t know much about Harley’s dad, just that he’d been out of the picture for a while. His mom had kicked him out of the house when he ended up bringing home a stack of money sprinkled with blood. Said she didn’t want to be raising her kids around a criminal. Which, valid.

Either way, Peter had no way of tracking down Harley’s dad, not that he’d want to.

He grabbed the note on Harley’s desk, swung himself back up to the roof and changed into his Spider-Man outift as fast as he could. He was Spider-Man, he could deal with hostage situations in his sleep.

So, as he swung over to the Martucci headquarters, he didn’t even think to call Tony.


	5. Peter Parker Recovering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things go awry

By the time the any of the Martucci’s had spotted him, he was already in the warehouse untying Abby. He was getting pretty quick with his knots after watching hours of YouTube videos on getting out of different kinds of knots (you never knew what kind you’d run into).

When he noticed them, he started forming a web wall between the mobsters and Harley’s family. It was a new formula that hadn’t really come in handy yet but once he sprayed it on the ground and kept ‘building it up,’ it expanded and hardened ultra fast into a wall. Then he started taking on the small part of the gang that he’d bumped into.

Harley shouted some words of encouragement and it was just enough for Peter to drop his guard and for him to get stabbed by a- a needle? He had no idea what he’d been injected with but he tried to ignore it. It didn’t seem to be affecting him much.

He removed the needle and kept fighting the others.

In his periphery he saw two men in lab coats arguing with each other, “Wasn’t that supposed to dial down his powers? I told you we shouldn’t have added that much chromic acid.”

“You can’t blame this on _me_ , you were the one who-“

Peter tuned them out to focus on the fight. The serum, or whatever it was, was supposed to tone down his Spidey powers? _Nice try!_ He thought as he punched a guy in the stomach and he ended up crashing into a wall twenty feet away.

But then when he took a step back to wince at how the concrete wall had cracked, he felt a knife enter through his abdominal, right below his ribs.

“Tony isn’t gonna be happy about this,” he muttered under his breath.

Karen took no time to respond through his mask, “Most definitely not, he is on his way right now.”

“Great,” he said as sarcastically as he could.

Luckily, after punching the guy who’d stabbed him, everyone seemed to be knocked out but the two chemists who were staring at him in shock.

Despite feeling a bit woozy he lifts his arm to aim his web shooters, but the chemists run away before he can do anything about them.

He looks down at the knife sticking out of his stomach and pokes it just a bit. When pain shoots through his nerves, he quickly regrets it.

Abby only managed to set her mom free so Peter quickly undoes Harley’s hands. When he goes to hug the other teen, Harley quickly turns him so that he ends up sitting in the chair Harley had been in. It was an uncomfortable chair. Maybe chemists didn’t care about comfort, just mixin’ stuff and-

His thoughts are drowned out by sirens and the familiar whir of Iron Man’s suit. Maybe this would be a good time to fall asleep. The last thing Peter hears is Harley crying before he closes his eyes.

Peter wakes up slowly and in a daze. But when he goes to stretch and there’s a stinging pain in his abdomen, he instantly regrets it as the memories from last night come flooding in.

The room is empty but for Tony who is resting in a chair. His eyes are closed and his head is propped up on his hand. Peter felt guilty. It was his fault Tony wasn’t getting enough sleep and that he was stuck in that cramped chair.

Peter really doesn’t want to wake him, but he _does_ want his mentor to get some actual sleep.

“Um, Tony?” he asks gently and the man’s eyes shoot open.

“Peter! Oh, thank god you’re awake! How are you feeling?”

Peter groans, “Are we sure I _just_ got stabbed?”

The man’s lips tighten, “Yeah, Harley said you got injected with something, right?”

The teen’s mouth goes into an ‘o’ shape, “I thought it was just supposed to make me not strong, not make me feel horrible,” and hadn’t it not even worked?

“About that, it seems like it has momentarily suspended your regeneration factor. Helen thinks it should return after you heal from your stab wound but for now your body is stuck like this. Which means,” he prompted.

“No Spider-Man,” Peter mumbled. It made sense, sure, but how long would it take him to recover? How would Queens be doing without him? What about- “Wait, how’s Harley and his family doing?”

“They’ve been doing okay. They’re obviously a bit shaken up though. Harley won’t be able to visit until a week and a half from now. Meanwhile, he’s been blowing up your phone,” Tony said and pulled out Peter’s phone from his shirt pocket.

“Wait, it’s Monday?” Peter exclaimed, “I have an essay due!” was his first thought, despite the realization that he’d been unconscious for three whole days.

“Chill out, I’ve already contacted all your teachers, bud. They’ve given you extensions on all your work.”

Peter exhaled, a long shaky breath, the guilt was sinking in deeper, “I’m sorry you had to do all of that for me, and that you’ve been stuck in that chair, and that you had to come get me, and-“

“Whoa, kid, calm down. It was nothing. Why wouldn’t I want to do all that?” He asked, sounding a bit concerned.

Peter ducked his head down low, “Well, I don’t know. I just don’t want to be a burden and I know you’re really busy.”

“Peter,” Tony put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, he leaned into the kind touch, “You will never be a burden to me. You’re my- You’re my kid,” he choked out.

Peter’s face caught fire and he looked away a little bit, “Really?”

Tony’s gentle touch turned into a careful hug, as not to aggravate Peter’s wounds, “Of course, Pete.”

Peter buried his head into Tony’s chest and returned the hug in kind, “Thanks,” he paused for a second, the word, so long unused was stuck in his throat, “Thanks, dad.”

Tony squeezed him a little harder and Peter felt loved.

Once they’d separated and Tony had ‘successfully’ hid the fact that he’d been crying, he finally asked, with a wink, “So when did you and Harley get so close?”

Peter just blushed and hid his head in his hands.


	6. Peter Parker Finale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> did harley notice?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the last chapter of peter's pov  
> next chapter should be harley's pov! :D  
> And i promise I won't do that thing where authors just repeat events, it's just going to be parts we didn't see in peter's perspective, promise

It was kinda sad how the only people who got to visit him in the medbay was his newly declared _family_ and Ned. It made him want to make some more friends, but he also didn’t know how he could handle that and _Spider-Man_.

Ned, Harley, and maybe MJ one day, were enough for him.

His friend was smart enough to bring some Legos over, not a set like they usually did but loose blocks allowing for peak creativity, which allowed them to do something with their hands while they talked.

“Thanks for coming to visit me, man,” Peter had mentioned, a bit late into the visit.

Ned looked up, “Of course, dude, _I’d_ probably die of _boredom_ if I was kept in a hospital room for this long,” Peter didn’t mention that he’d only been awake for the stay for two whole days, “Plus, Harley can’t hang out at all so I’ve been pretty bored without my two best friends,” he said, sort of pouting.

“I shoud’ve been out yesterday but Tony’s been all protective and stuff,” he commented off hand.

“I mean, I would be too if my kid got stabbed, how’d that even happen?”

Peter didn’t answer his question, “Wait, did you just say Harley? Like, Harley Keener? _He’s_ your other best friend?”

“That better be a happy accusation, I don’t think I could handle any drama in my three person friend group,” Peter gave him a _look_ , “But yeah, it’s Harley Keener. How do you two know each other?” Peter’s face turned bright red and Ned’s eyes went wide, “Wait, _he’s_ the guy you’ve been hopelessly pining over?” Ned exclaimed.

“You don’t have to say it so loudly, Tony has cameras _everywhere_ , but yeah,” he ran his hand through his curls, feeling a bit anxious.

“This is wild. I can’t believe my two best friends like each other and I didn’t even know! Bro, he talks about you _all the time_ , MJ has literally threatened him with duct tape.”

Peter’s face steadily got hotter to the point where he thought he might catch on fire, “Ned-“ he drew out, “What did I say about the cameras?”

“Haha, right,” Ned said with a sheepish grin, “Wait! Did you already know he likes you back or did I just totally ruin every-“

“I knew, don’t worry. Actually, I was about to-“ Peter’s back went ramrod straight when he remembered: the note, the rooftop, and everything he’d left up there. What if Harley found it? Peter was pretty sure he’d taken the note with him but-

“You good, Pete?”

“Hnnnnn-“ he whined, “I’ll manage,” Peter just had to hope for the best.

“Whatever you say, man. Wanna watch a movie? I brought my iPad,” Ned said, already getting the tablet out.

“Yes! But don’t let Tony know you have one of those, he might throw it against a wall.” Lately, the billionaire had been pretty angry at Apple for constantly stealing his ideas.

Ned paled, “We’ll have to keep in on the DL then.”

“My lips are sealed, don’t worry.”

Ned laughed and they pulled up Netflix.

Peter’s heart was beating faster than ever before. By now, his knife wound had healed up with a thick scar and he was going through his life as per usual, but this was the first time he’d be seeing Harley since his friend got kidnapped. His regeneration factor hadn’t completely returned yet, so he was waiting another week to go out as Spider-Man per Tony’s rules.

But Harley’s mom had finally allowed him out of the house for something other than school and the first thing the teen had decided to do was visit Peter!

They’d been texting every day since the kidnapping but neither of them mentioned the set-up Peter had left on the roof. Hopefully that meant Harley hadn’t found it.

So now that Harley was coming up the elevator, it was all that Peter could think about. And with a _ding,_ there he was.

Harley looked gorgeous, as always. His dirty blonde hair was a bit windswept and he had a sheepish look on his face. When he made eye contact with Peter he was suddenly running straight at him.

They wasted no time hugging. Harley had his arms wrapped around Peter’s shoulders and Peter’s hands were tight around Harley’s torso, “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Peter breathed into Harley’s neck.

“That should be my line, Peter, you’re the one who got stabbed!” he scolded him a little bit before pulling away from the hug.

Peter somehow resisted pulling him back in for another one, “Yeah, but I’m fine! It healed up in no time at all!” he lied. Harley called his bluff almost instantly.

“Didn’t you just get the stiches removed?”

Peter wilted under Harley’s glare, “Okay, so maybe it didn’t take ‘no time at all,’ but still, it was worth it,” he said softly. And it was, he’d do it a million times over if it meant Harley was safe.

Harley blushed and turned away, “So you’ve been doing well then?”

“Yeah? Are you okay?” Peter asked nervously. His brain was going crazy. Harley had definitely found the stuff on the roof and he was definitely going to turn down Peter and-

“Can, can we talk in your room?” he asked shyly. Which was a new one. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Harley _shy_. He must’ve really fucked up.

“Uhh, yeah, that’s totally fine,” Peter’s brain didn’t feel like it was working at all. 

Once they were both sitting on his bed, Peter tried to start with an apology, but Harley cut him off.

“I found what you left on the rooftop, and I- I wanted to say that I like you too, and would you maybe want to go out with me?”

Suddenly everything was moving _way too fast_. Peter had just thought that Harley was calling off their friendship but now he wanted to be Peter’s _boyfriend_.

His mouth opened, but nothing came out. Maybe he got too much serotonin and it fried his brain. Was that possible?

“Peter?” Harley asked, cautious.

The vigilante grabbed both of Harley’s hands, “Yes, a thousand times yes, I very much want to go out with you!”

Harley let go of Peter’s hands and drew him into another hug, “Oh thank gosh, I was getting worried for a sec.”

“Worried? What for? I was prepared to serenade you on that rooftop, I’ll have you know!” a half-lie, but it made Harley laugh into his side, “I was ready to break out my guitar for you!”

“Wait, you play guitar?” Harley quickly asked, pulling away to look Peter in the eye.

Nervously, he responded, “I had no friends and lived in Tennessee for most of my life, of course I played the guitar.”

“Will you play some for me?” Harley asked, his eyes big and pleading.

“Only if you don’t count this as our first date!” Peter asserted.

“Sounds good to me.”

The two of them spent the rest of the day in Peter’s room, playing guitar, cuddling, and just enjoying the other’s presence.

Peter was so glad to finally be Spider-Man again. And judging by the cheers from below, he’d been missed.

Swinging through the city gave him the assurance he didn’t know he was missing. He was helping people once again.

It was like a breath of fresh air after being trapped in smoke.

Once he was done with his patrol, he headed over to Harley’s. His _boyfriend_ said he had something special planned and Peter was feeling all kinds of nerves.

When he got to the apartment and Harley’s room was empty, a jolt of panic went through him. What if Harley had been kidnapped again? But there on the desk was a note written in red ink and signed with a heart, ‘Meet me on the roof.’ It said in Harley’s cute but messy handwriting.

Peter shot up instantly.

The roof was reminiscent of how Peter had decorated it for Harley. There was a cute picnic basket, some cozy blankets, and soda. His favorite part was, of course, his boyfriend, who sat in the middle of it smiling like a doofus.

“So, is this our first date?” he asked before pulling off his Spidey-mask.

“If you want it to be,” Harley said, biting his lip. Peter tried to look away and failed.

And so it was, they cuddled next to the sunset and ate all the food Harley had made.

“Thanks, darlin’ this was really sweet of you,” Peter said, looking Harley in the eye. The other boy was blushing and their faces seemed to be mere millimeters apart.

“Can I kiss you?” Harley blurted out, and Peter leaned in closer.

It was soft and sweet. Peter wouldn’t mind if the rest of his life was like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you liked this, leave a comment and i'll love you forever!  
> Jesi~


	7. Harley Keener: Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley Keener's origin story lmao

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: homophobic behavior bullying f-slur child abuse

Harley loved the city, there was always something going on. But maybe he was biased, he’d been raised there after all. He could proudly say he knew Queens like the back of his hand.

His family never had a lot of money so he and his mom had to find his entertainment in different ways. If they couldn’t go to the movies, they’d go people watching at the park. If they couldn’t eat out, his mom would set up a picnic on the top of the roof and make some of the best food Harley had ever had (again, he was probably biased).

When Harley was six and he couldn’t go to science camp because his mom had two kids to take care of on top of bills, Harley rummaged around in dumpsters and found old parts in broken machine around his house.

His dad had never really been a big part of his life. The man had always been _crazy_ about his mom, but never so much around Harley. When Abby came along, the little joy that she was, his dad simply got farther apart from them. And the bills grew higher.

As his mom started picking up new work and working longer shifts, his dad started to get more and more angry. Harley was never sure if it was because he wasn’t the ‘breadwinner’ anymore or something stupid like that. But once Harley turned seven and had just gotten his first crush (a cute boy named Jeremiah), his dad started beating him.

Thankfully, he never laid a hand on Abby -not that Harley would let him- but the more Harley got beat the more he stayed out of the house. He would take Abby to the nearby park whenever he could. After school, they’d spend hours there: either working on homework or just relaxing in the brisk air.

Winters and Summers were the worst for those two years. His mom had been saving up for them, but she still was constantly working and his dad knew how to hit Harley so that she wouldn’t notice.

He never told her, she already had so much on her plate.

When his dad started working and buying expensive things for the family (almost like he couldn’t wait to get rid of the money), Harley thought nothing of it. His dad had stopped beating him, taking his aggressions out somewhere else, and now Harley had so many new things to take apart and put back together. He still spent a lot of his time in the park with Abby though. Old fears die hard he supposes.

It’s then that he finally does something good. Something that fills his heart with warmth and joy and makes his cheeks flush when he thinks about it.

Abby is off playing with her dolls in eye’s view when he sees the boy. He can’t be older than Harley and he has curly brown hair. When Harley approaches him and the boy looks up at him with teary brown eyes, Harley knows he has to help him.

He learns that the boy is from Tennessee, of all places, and his school group left the park without him and Peter doesn’t know where they went. Harley introduced him to whatever gadget he’d been working on and was thrilled when the boy could keep up and started to cheer up.

All too soon, the boy’s class returned and he had to leave. Harley never even got his name.

Memories of the boy faded away with time and new friends. Harley didn’t know the details but he watched as his mom came home early to find his dad counting stacks of cash. Apparently, that’s not how real jobs worked and when she found blood on some of the bills, she kicked him out of the apartment quicker than you could say “alacazam.”

Harley’s heart clenched when she also sent him away with the money. A part of his worried that once they were short on money again, his mom would pick up where his dad had left off and start beating him.

But she didn’t. They applied to different schools and somehow, Harley got a full scholarship to Midtown Middle. A school that, if he did well, would fully prepare him to go to Midtown High. A STEM school with all kinds of opportunities.

Abby didn’t get in, but she was okay with that. She had more of a passion for art and literature than Harley could even pretend to have. She went to a nearby public school and was thriving.

Harley, while he enjoyed his classes, wasn’t exactly _thriving_. He had a total of two friends: Ned and Matt. Ned was nerdy like him and Matt just came from a rich family. He had less of an interest in STEM and more of an interest in where Midtown Middle would allow him to _go_ for high school, somewhere expensive probably.

Which was okay with Ned and Harley, they got to bond over Legos and other things. Matt took Harley’s side on the Stak Trek is better than Star Wars debate but Harley took Ned’s side on the Iron Man is better than Captain America debate. They all balanced each other out and it was nice.

Sometimes, Matt would say something less than savory about some minority or the like and Ned and Harley wouldn’t talk to him for a day. But Matt always apologized and said he never meant to hurt them.

Despite the boy’s faults, Harley started having a crush on Matt. He liked the way Matt would pat his shoulder after he did something cool, he swooned over Matt’s smile when they were pulling a prank on Ned, and he couldn’t stop thinking about running his hands through Matt’s bright blonde hair.

His family noticed he had a crush on _someone_ because he was garbage at hiding his feelings. But he was scared to tell them it was his friend Matt. What if they hated him after that?

Then one day, he came home to a rainbow pin sitting on his nightstand next to his bed. Did his mom, already know?

He decided then that he had to tell them, even if they already knew. And he’d tell them in the coolest way ever.

That’s how he built the ‘Celebrator XD.’ The XD was Ned’s idea, a surefire way to make the gadget even cooler. It was built to, when he pressed a remote button, shoot confetti everywhere around itself.

One dinner, he planted it inconspicuously on their countertop and prepared himself mentally. Once they were all done eating, he clenched the remote he’d made in his hand.

Nervous anxiety filled his gut and he tried to control his breathing, to no avail. So many bad thoughts were filling his head about this going wrong. What if the rainbow pin had been a trap? Or what if-

But then he looked at his family and saw how much they loved him. It wasn’t a trap, they were just waiting for him to announce it on his own terms. And that is what he was going to do.

“I’m gay,” he said, and before they could even speak, he pressed the button for the Celebrator XD and instead of blowing out confetti, it promptly blew up.

It wasn’t a big explosion, but it was enough to crack one of the countertop tiles and left a black soot mark that would end up taking Harley _forever_ to get out. While his mom was freaking out about the explosion, Abby came up to him and gave him a big hug.

“Thanks for telling us, Harls, it means a lot.” And his mom gave him the same loving treatment after she’d dunked his entire machine under the running sink.

Emboldened by the good events of the night, the next morning, he built up the courage to tell his only two friends. Instead of the remote control, this time he had the rainbow pin clutched in his hands.

He let his anxiety build up till the end of the day, just in case he got an averse reaction. Before his friends could get picked up by their parents and Harley had to walk home, he pulled them off to the side. Just a few feet away from the front door, he told them.

Ned was instantly excited. He gave Harley a big, warm hug and Harley’s heart felt lifted, “I’m so proud of you, dude.”

Matt, on the other hand, was not excited. He looked at Harley with _disgust_ in his eyes, “Ew, have you been gay this whole time? Did you have a _crush_ on me?” he taunted and Harley’s cheeks went red as tears started to build up in his eyes, “Holy shit, I bet you did. You’re so gross. Don’t ever talk to me again, fag,” he spat before turning and running away.

Ned quickly took him into another hug, “He’s wrong, don’t listen to him. You’re one of the best people I know,” Harley just hugged him back and hoped his only friend was telling the truth.

When he went home that day, and told his mom what happened, they all cuddled up on the couch to watch Friends and eat ice cream. The whole way through they were assuring him that he wasn’t gross at all and it was okay to be himself.

The next day, everyone knew his secret. While he never got beat up for it, the remarks made about him were never quiet and it wasn’t easy to ignore the pain of losing a friend only for him to turn into an enemy.

When he was in Eighth Grade, he got to go to his first Pride Parade. His mom took him and Abby and they just had a great time the whole day. Harley felt free wearing his bright shirt and the eye shadow his mom had helped him with. Abby wore bright pink and held up rainbow flags. He’d never been more grateful for his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a big oof. I should have an iron dad fix coming out soon so watch out!   
> (Harley will not be ft. ;( )


	8. Harley Keener Accepting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley's life gets a lot bigger when he starts high school.

Midtown High was a whole different kind of freeing. While Midtown Middle ended up sending a lot of its kids to the high school, it also took people from all kinds of places. There, he wasn’t ostracized for being gay.

He even joined the LGBTQIA+ club, which was where he cautiously befriended Michelle, later known as MJ. The club name was a bit of a mouthful but he learned all kinds of things in that club. Like how 42% of LGBT youth live in an unwelcoming environment, or that 34% are bullied on school property, or how 43% of all homeless LGBT+ youth were kicked out by their parents.

The point of their club was to spread awareness and raise money for different shelters, programs, and individuals in bad situations like those. The club sometimes made him want to lash out and cry, but he persevered for the importance of their work.

To raise money, he started up an electronic repair shop online so he could donate as much as he could. It was then, when one of his customers gave him a flyer, that he found out about the Stark Internship. His customer had probably assumed him to be a college student, because that’s what the flyer was advertising for.

Harley wanted to apply more than anything. He wasn’t about to let something as trivial as his school level affect him. He submitted an application under some not so well-known college. He got real recommendation letters from his teachers but put them under random professor’s names. Then, he submitted his blueprints for one of the robots he’d been working on.

Miraculously, he made it. His application went through and he _got the internship_! Of course, once they found out, he was sent straight up to _Pepper Potts_ of all people. Apparently, the internship had been her idea, so she was to be in charge of all the ‘mishaps.’

That led her to call _Tony Stark_ , and right when Harley thought he was about to get into major trouble. The billionaire claimed him as his personal intern.

That was how he became the first high school intern at Stark Industries. He was suddenly making more money than he knew what to do with; he sent half of it to the LGBT+ charity his club often donated to and gave the rest to his mom. But he knew she was just going to put it away into his and Abby’s college fund.

His whole life is going great. He makes headway with Tony Stark, he’s doing well in all his classes, and he’s more at ease with wearing his rainbow pin around school. He’d never been happier than he was at that point.

Nearing the end of his freshman year, in the middle of working in the lab with Tony, the billionaire gets a call that clearly shakes him up.

When the words ‘medical attention’ and ‘kicked out’ ring out in Tony’s voice, Harley feels chills run down his back, “Tony, is everything okay?”

But when the billionaire looked at him with a grim look, Harley _kne_ w _._ “I have to go pick up my kid, if he-“ Tony was pale so Harley helped him to the hangar and watched as he took off to wherever he was going in a sleek jet and a nice suit.

That summer, his internship was put on hold until Sophomore Year. Tony had taken guardianship of a teen Harley’s age and when Harley came back to the tower he was already calling him ‘son,’ “But not to his face, I don’t want to spook him,” Tony had confided in him.

The gist of the story was that his son had saved Tony’s life a long time ago (Harley didn’t know the whole story) and just recently he got kicked out of his house for liking boys. Harley told Tony about the charity he often donated to, and he wasn’t surprised when they suddenly received a large, anonymous donation.

Sophomore Year somehow ended up being even better than Freshman Year -and not just because he’d moved up in grade and had more interesting classes. It was because of the class he took online, or rather, the boy he met through it.

It had taken him a week to request to take the online mechanics class since the one he was in in school was the most boring thing he’d ever done.

Once he mentioned his internship with Tony Stark, it was approved as quick as can be.

The online course was more rigorous and required a group project for designing blueprints and a 3-D render of what they were making. He got paired up with one Peter Parker. Peter was so easy to talk to. He reminded Harley of Ned in some ways.

Apparently, he’d never been in a STEM school before this year but was already excelling. He lived with his dad and an assortment of what he described as kind of crazy aunts and uncles.

As their project began to near completion, Harley can’t help but want to solidify his friendship with Peter. He is so worried that once they’re done with the project, they’ll just stop texting, and calling, and facetim- okay it’s unlikely, but he still doesn’t want to lose it.

He had a whole plan for them to eventually meet up and hang out in real life, but everything is derailed by none other than Spider-Man. Harley hears one of Peter’s aunts say in the background, “Peter, we’ve got to talk about how you’re going to use your powers as Spider-Man.”

And Harley pounced. He was the one to come up with the idea of patrolling in Queens because it was a) full of crime, b) he knew it like the back of his hand (soon, so would Spider-Man), and c) it was right where Harley lived. They made a whole plan for getting Spider-Man around the city and it largely worked out.

Before Harley realized it, he was falling hard for Peter.

At school, his growing affections for Peter come to light. It gets a bit overwhelming for Ned and MJ. He won’t shut up about Peter. He freaks out about text receipts and the most mundane stuff.

It reaches its peak after Peter gets to visit Harley for the first time.

“His hair was so soft and I don’t know if my heart is going to last if he keeps visit-“

MJ calmly took some duct tape out of her bag in a threatening manner. She didn’t even need to say anything, Harley got the point.

From then on, he only ranted about Peter at home and when he and Ned were alone. Of course, he also talked about other things, but he was never good at keeping his feelings to himself.

Peter’s first visit spiraled into many more. Harley could hardly get enough of Peter’s presence. He felt so at ease around the vigilante and overall inspired by him. Of course, he didn’t want to have another ‘Matt’ situation occur so he kept quiet about being gay, just in case.

One day, Tony pulled him aside to talk about a new internship program he was planning. It was all high schoolers -inspired by Harley and his son, of course- and he wanted to know if Harley wanted a hand in directing it.

Harley declined and only found out that Tony’s son would be helping _after_ the fact. He felt a little bit upset that he’d missed a chance to meet him but at least it wouldn’t be interfering with his personal internship.

Or with helping Peter be Spider-Man, there was something so different about helping Tony, a superhero who’s mostly figured out his whole superhero thing, and Peter, who is still figuring out the ropes and learning how to be a superhero.

Plus, Peter is so passionate about helping people. He almost broke his curfew heading back home just so he could help some old lady with her groceries.

The more Spider-Man went out, the less he needed Harley as a guy in the chair. As their relationship drifted farther from Spider-Man they became closer as friends. He already had an AI in his suit that could tap into police radios but no one he could really talk to. Another reason Harley was cautious about his sexuality, he was the other teen’s only friend. If Peter took it wrong, which seemed impossible (but you never knew), then the other boy would be all alone.

Harley could tell that Peter didn’t need him in his ear anymore giving directions and the like as he moved through the city like he’d been born there. What Harley couldn’t figure out was why Peter kept him on the line.

He chose not to think about it.

Then, one day for his internship, he came across one of Spider-Man’s web-shooters, “Tony, did you build this? It’s Spider-Man’s right?”

Tony looked over and nodded, “Yeah, the kid is super smart. He did most of the work on the suit, I just gave him the materials. Plus, my son is pretty taken with him, so it was no problem,” Tony said with a wink.

Harley paled, did _Tony Stark’s son_ like Spider-Man? Did he even know Spider-Man outside of the mask? If that was so, and Peter liked boys, then did Harley even have a _chance_? The odds were not in his favor.

All Harley did was talk Peter’s ear off when he was on patrol. This other guy was helping with his suits and-

“So, how’s it going with your crush?” Tony asked, oddly enough still on topic (not that Tony could ever know).

“Are you still on that?” Harley asked, looking at his mentor who nodded with curious eyes, “Tony, I just, I don’t know what to do. I keep getting mixed vibes and I want to shoot my shot, but then I see him and my brain just kinda malfunctions.”

They kept talking about it for a while which always helped ease his worries.

Unfortunately, after that conversation, everything started to go downhill. He and Peter talked less when the superhero was on patrol and Peter stopped swinging over as much. Harley wasn’t sure if Peter had figured out Harley’s crush on him or if he was starting to realize that Harley wasn’t really all that helpful.

The weird limbo their relationship was going through lasted about two weeks and during that period, Harley definitely hung out with Ned as much as he could, which was not that often. Ned had just started his own SI internship a while ago and made friends with none other than Tony Stark’s son, he’d been pretty busy to say the least.

It all came to a close when he got kidnapped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof kinda over this :/  
> might just upload all the other chapters at once at the end tbh  
> jesi~


	9. Harley Keener Overcoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> stuff goes down? not really tho :/

He’d just made his way back to the apartment building when he was grabbed by two men and shoved into the back of a van. The street was empty, it was the weekend, and Peter probably wouldn’t be stopping by tonight. Harley had no idea how long it would b until he’d be found.

They brought him to a warehouse near Little Italy where the rest of his family was.

There, a man -dressed like the perfect example of a mobster- was screaming at his mom for a way to contact his dad. But, of course, she didn’t know. None of them knew. He’d been long gone out of their lives, ever since he’d brought home his blood money.

And this mob was probably where it had come from. Harley hated that, despite them kicking his dad out of their lives, he was still affecting them in a negative way. Harley was there for a solid fifteen minutes before his phone rang out. The ringtone (Left Hand Free) told him it was Peter.

The mobster was yelling at him and amidst the words, Abby started crying. He wanted to reach over and hold her hand but with the rope keeping him tied to the chair, it was impossible.

He wanted to tell her that Spider-Man would come and save the day, but he didn’t want to give away Pete.

But then he was there, faster than Harley had thought possible. Where had he been swinging from?

Spider-Man made quick work of Abby’s restraints before he was noticed by the gang members. Harley had never personally seen Spider-Man fight so when the mobsters engaged, it was quite the sight. He dodged around them like a dancer.

Harley shouted some words of encouragement but that had been a mistake.

The second Spider-Man looked over at him, he got stabbed with a needle. Harley almost expected Spider-Man to keel over from some poison or anesthesia, but he kept fighting: steady and focused. Harley didn’t shout anything after that.

The mobsters stood no chance against the superpowered vigilante. Harley watched in astonishment as he punched a man so far that he slammed into a wall and cracked it. He was so busy marveling at Spider-Man’s strength that he couldn’t even warn Peter about the guy coming at his with a knife.

And then Peter got stabbed. Harley knew Spider-Man got injured on the job a lot. He’d been on comms with him for a majority of the vigilante’s wounds. He’d literally walked Spider-Man through self-care after he got slashed with a razor blade.

Seeing it happen in person, however, was a lot different and he realized that he’d much rather stay behind a screen if it meant he didn’t have to watch _Peter_ get hurt.

The guy who stabbed Peter was the last one remaining and despite the knife hilt sticking out of his abdomen, Spider-Man took them out with no effort. Then he hobbled over to where Abby had been struggling with Harley’s rope and took care of it in seconds.

Harley quickly stood up and maneuvered Peter into the chair he’d been in.

The blood was seeping into his costume and if Harley tried hard enough he could make himself think that it was just water on the costume and not what kept Peter alive.

Harley tried to keep Peter awake but he kept mumbling something about the mobsters and the chair and by the time Iron Man arrived, Peter’s head had slumped over in sleep and Harley was sobbing. All he could do was hope that Tony would take care of him.

Tony’s call came at 11 pm that night.

“Tony, is he okay?” Harley asked in a rush.

The man took a deep breath and Harley’s heart just nearly stopped before, “Yeah, Peter’s going to be okay. Can you tell me what happened at the warehouse?”

Harley nodded before remembering that this was a phone call, “Yeah, um Peter called my phone, I’m not totally sure why, but then he came ass Spider-Man and wiped out all of the guys. He got stabbed obviously and um-“ Harley’s brain reported back an error, “I dunno, there was so much going on.”

“Did the Martucci’s do anything other than stab him?” Tony asked.

Harley let his mind drift through the fight, “They did stab him with a needle. I don’t know what it was but it didn’t seem to affect Peter at all, he just kept fighting.”

Tony let out a loud breath, “Okay, thanks Harls. That actually really helps, I’ll tell the Doctor now.”

“Are you okay, Tony?” Harley asked, noticing how hard the man was taking this.

He heard the billionaire’s voice hitch, “I’ll be okay, it’s just hard to see Pete go through that. I’ve realized that that’s something a parent should never have to go through.”

“Oh, do you know Peter’s dad?” Harley asked carefully, he could only imagine that Peter’s dad would not be taking this well.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, “Kid, I’m Peter’s dad, well, guardian but you get the point.”

Harley was pretty sure that at this point, his brain was just breaking down further and further, “What? How did I not know this?”

“Beats me, you should ask Pete when he wakes up.”

“Do you know when that’ll be? And when can I visit?” Harley asked urgently.

“We’re not really sure. It could be today or in three days, but I’ll keep you updated. And you can come over to the tower whenever you want, Peter’s definitely not going anywhere.”

Harley let out a long breath, “Thanks Tony, that means a lot.”

With that, they said their goodbyes and hung up. Harley padded out to the living room to find his mom and Abby cuddling on the couch. Abby was dead asleep and his mom was just holding her softly.

Harley took a seat next to her, “Hey mom,” he asked quietly, she nodded to indicate she was listening, but she was still looking down at Abby, “Is it okay if I go visit Peter at Stark Tower tomorrow after school?”

He was worried he said something wrong because her whole head jolted at that and looked at him, “No way, bud. We’re gonna be playing it safe for the next two weeks. So, you’re basically grounded.”

“That’s so unfair! What about school?” Harley asked, desperation seeping into his voice.

His mom just roller her eyes and patted Harley on the shoulder with her free hand, “You’re going to be escorted to and from by a police escort for the next two weeks. I didn’t come up with the dates, if I _had_ it’d be more like for your whole life. So, feel lucky this is only for the next two weeks.”

Harley practically wilted against the seat covers, “Okay, mom.”

Harley doesn’t remember falling asleep, but when he woke up, they were all curled up together on the couch. Despite the not-really-grounding-grounding, he was glad that he was with his family and they were all safe.


	10. Harley Keener Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> uwu the boys work it all out and some of their history is revealed.

Harley’s first text to Peter was sent that Saturday, despite knowing Peter wasn’t awake:

_Yo, why didn’t you tell me that Iron Man was your dad?_

From then on, he kept spamming Peter’s phone with random texts about how his day was going and memes he didn’t want Peter to miss while he was asleep.

At one point, Tony got fed up with him as he was on the receiving end and ‘politely’ told him to stop (News Alert: he didn’t).

The first text he got back from Peter was a response to the first one:

_Idk, because it’s kind of a long story?_

Harley waited for further comment, he didn’t want to push the other teen if he didn’t want to talk about it. Surprisingly, there was a follow up text. It outlined Peter’s saving Tony and getting kicked out of his home for being different.

Harley felt sick, knowing that Peter had been through all of that. Then:

**Harley**

_Wait, so u were born in New York?_

**Peter**

_Haha yeah, funnily enough my parents lived in Queens_

_I just moved because my Aunt and Uncle were in TN_

_Where’s your fam from?_

**Harley**

_This is gonna sound wild but my mom and dad are actually from TN too_

**Peter**

_No way! My mind: blown._

_Where exactly from?_

**Harley**

_Hold up, lemme ask_

_Rose Hill? Wherever the hell that is?_

**Peter**

_What the hecc?_

_That’s where I’m from_

**Harley**

_Wait a sec, imagine this:_

_What if I’d grown up in Rose Hill and you grew up in Queens?_

_Maybe I’d be the one with the Spider-Powers!_

**Peter**

_Never! They’re mine!_

**Harley**

_lmao ur such a kid sometimes_

A lot of their conversations went like that. Just learning about each other for a second time. It felt new.

It was refreshing to have after Peter had been not so subtly avoiding Harley.

Their next text conversation was started by Peter.

**Peter**

_Why didn’t_ you _tell me you were friends with Ned?_

**Harley**

_You too know each other? This is getting crazier and crazier._

_He’s been my best friend since middle school!_

**Peter**

_Wow, it’s almost like fate_

_uwu_

Harley’s heart beat faster with every text message. Despite not being able to see each other, he could feel his feelings grow deeper. It was just like how their friendship had started: with dorky text messages and stupid memes.

Except for the fact that they hadn’t been facetiming much. Harley had school and when he got home, he was spending most of his time with his sister. He was almost scared to let her out of his sight.

**Peter**

_Do you- well, are you,_

_Do you like boys?_

_Cuz I noticed your pride pin in your room a while ago_

**Harley**

_Haha yeah, that’s okay, right?_

**Peter**

_bro, of course, cuz like, me too? I guess_

_I’m bisexual_

_How long have you known?_

**Harley**

_Basically all my life, but I didn’t come out till eighth grade_

_We went to pride, it was super fun_

**Peter**

_Really? I’ve always wanted to go!_

_Nat said she’d take me as Spider-Man this year_

**Harley**

_that sounds pretty fun, are you gonna wear a bi-flag suit or smth?_

**Peter**

_I wasn’t but I think I have to now_

_That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard_

**Harley**

_No prob, what are friends for?_

_How long have you known that you liked boys?_

**Peter**

_:p it was actually when I came to New York for my school trip_

_My class left me behind :( and a really really pretty boy stayed with me ‘till they came back_

**Harley**

_…._

_u’ve gotta be shitting me rn_

_I think that might’ve been me?_

Their texts were where Harley found solace in the monotony of his school to home to school to home life. As fun as not having to leave the house sounded in theory, it didn’t really work out when you had a sister who was veering into angsty teenager territory.

“Can you just leave me alone for one second?” Abby practically screamed at him when he was checking up on how her homework was going.

“And go where? We’d need a police escort to even _leave_ the building,” Harley said back, not quite as loud.

His mom, ever patient wasn’t there to mediate between them as she was at work. Harley looked around the living room. There wasn’t exactly anything he wanted to do here so, “I’m going to the roof. Don’t need a police escort to be there, I think.”

“Fine,” Abby all but hissed.

“Fine!”

And then he was climbing up the stairs to the roof. He’d been expecting empty concrete and the two plants that stayed up there.

Instead, he found a disheveled quilt, wilting flowers that had been tossed around by the wind, leaving petals all over the roof, and a basket that distinctly smelled like rotting food. It looked like a date gone wrong and he was about to go back down to the apartment when he found a hoodie that looked all too familiar.

And familiar it was. It was one of Harley’s own. Or rather, the one Peter had stolen and looked much to cute in for Harley to take it back. Next to that was a dress shirt and some jeans. Jeans that had the faintest of faintest stains: a light red from when they’d made Jello and spilled it on Peter before it had set.

Had Peter done all of this? For him? Why?

And when? The night Harley had been kidnapped?

Was- Was Peter going to confess?

Harley’s heart was beating all too fast at the thought. He considered texting Peter to confirm but, no. He would take this as a sign. The next time he saw Peter, he’d ask him to be his boyfriend.

Somehow, everything worked out. Peter liked him. Peter liked _him_. Of all people.

Harley felt a bit stupid thinking that Tony Stark’s son (who had been Peter this whole time) had been a threat to him going out with Peter.

He also felt stupid for thinking Peter wouldn’t want to be his friend because he was gay. Peter was nothing like Matt.

The week Harley had started dating Peter, all he could think about was where to have their first date. He wanted to do something really meaningful. He also really wanted to kiss Peter but wanted the mood to be right, without seeming too desperate.

On top of being Harley’s first relationship, Peter had saved Harley’s life. The answer came to him when Abby was getting mad at him again.

 _The roof_ of course. Where else would he do it?

He cleared up everything from up there, cleaned Peter’s clothes and the quilt (which he kept for himself), and began thinking up what he wanted up there.

He decided to have it on Peter’s first day of patrol as a hopefully welcome surprise.

He decked the roof out with everything romantic he could find and had the perfect happy ending.

Except in his story, it’d last as long as he wanted it to. Him and Peter till the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated!  
> Accidentally uploaded in one part instead of many, sorry for the confusion. :(
> 
> check out some of my other works:  
> this is harley x peter  
> [radio silence](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22208542)  
> [Bound Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22283824)  
> here's some bucky and peter (not a ship!) ft. our good friend Amnesia  
> [Cold Hands, Warm Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424545)  
> here's the newest oneshot of my series: Flash as a Complex Character:  
> [Recovery](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22497589)


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